I am an FSX fanatic and run the Simulator through 4 cores and therefore have invested in the Q9450. I am also going to use the 9800GX2, with 8GB of DDR2 running either XP 64bit or Vista 64bit. Either or it will be a 64bit Operating System to take advantage of the 8GB of DDR2. FSX will use about 3.5GB of that and the rest will use up the other internal and external pieces of equipment I will be using such as Active Sky X, X Graphics, Live ATC, Skype etc.

FSX is one of the most demanding games on the market and I have been looking at numerous motherboards but am getting discombobulated with the compatibility issues. I have a budget of £300 for the motherboard.

Any help on the matter would be much appreciated?
Any suggestions on the rest of the set up feel free to add..

Can someone please help me choose the best, I am not so concerned about the money but instead being able to overclock the Q9450 and having the most powerfull RAM to support my PC running a 64bit as powerfull as possible and helping FSX go as fast as possible. I use CS3 and Cubase as well.

I wouldn't recommend overclocking any hardware. Memory is categorised by it's safe working speeds, if you go over this it may work, however you will limit it's life and increase the numbers of errors it will make.

Chances are you will not be able to tell the difference whether it is overclocked or not. Sure you can measure the difference, but the noticeable difference as you use the PC will be negligible._________________"Microsoft programs are generally bug-free. If you visit the Microsoft hotline, you'll literally have to wait weeks if not months until someone calls in with a bug in one of our programs. 99.99% of calls turn out to be user mistakes. I know not a single less irrelevant reason for an update than bugfixes. The reasons for updates are to present more new features."
-- Bill Gates, on code stability, from Focus Magazine